We’re patiently waiting on Oculus Connect 3 for information on Oculus Touch launch, but an official company retail partner might have just spilled the goods.
German retailer MediaMarkt has listed the anticipated position tracked controllers on its website. They’re available to pre-order for €199, which works out to be around $225 or £168. It’s apparently shipping on November 21st 2016. That date is in line with the Q4 2016 window that Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe previously provided. Normally we wouldn’t report on a simple listing like this that could easily be placeholder but MediaMarkt isn’t any old retailer; it’s one of Oculus VR’s official retailer partners for Europe, and will be one of the first to sell the Rift outside of Oculus itself later on this month.
That lends serious weight to the validity of this info, though we’ve reached out to Oculus for confirmation.
If true, that could mean the total Oculus package, including both a Rift and Touch, will be around $799, the exact same price as the HTC Vive. That’s not too surprising considering Touch brings the Oculus experience much closer to that of the Vive with position-tracked controls, though the kit still won’t be placing an emphasis on room scale user tracking. Touch will also come with an extra sensor to enhance the experience.
Oculus Touch will be launching with over 30 titles later this year, though the traditional gamepad will still be supported in some Rift games. It’s been a long road to release for the controller, having been revealed at E3 2015 and initially promised for earlier this year before it was delayed around Christmas time. Those that pre-ordered an Oculus Rift before its launch in March will have also secured a place in line to pre-order the new controllers.
Oculus Connect 3 kicks off on October 5th, though there’s an opening keynote on the morning of October 6th. If we’re going to learn solid release info for Touch at the event, then it’s likely to be there.
